Introduction
All CFOs need to leave a legacy before they move on. In other words, they need to have made a permanent improvement to the organization. Yet many CFOs, and the accountants who report to them, are not producing enough added value to their organization—they are failing to make a difference. I know this from observation and my own personal experience. How many CFOs, financial controllers, management accountants, on leaving, receive an outpouring of loss from the senior management team and budget holders?
Many finance teams are merely a processing machines moving from one deadline to the next having too little time to invest in being a business partner to budget holders and senior management.
This book is a follow on edition from Paretos 80/20 Rule for Corporate Accountants. The Book has been extended to incorporate issues that directly relate to the CFO being a better leader and a more effective business partner with the senior management team. It has drawn from my recent book The leading-edge manager’s guide to success. The better practices in this book are ignored at your peril, as they are based on the wisdom and better practices of over 4,000 accountants whom I have met through delivering my workshops around the world.
I would like to add that few, if any, of these practices were used by me when I was a corporate accountant; thus senior management did not shed a tear when I left the organization. It is my mission to ensure CFOs, financial controllers and management accountants ...
